Loyalty
by ashanta
Summary: (UPDATED) Chapter Six: During a weekend visit to Hogsmeade, the lurking Dementors, still on the search for Sirius Black, cause Justin to relive the moment of his petrification from a year ago, and Cedric consoles him. R
1. A Secret Between Friends

**Title**: Loyalty

**Author**: Ashanta

**Rating**: PG

**Summary**: For some strange, unexplainable reason, I had the desire to write a Justin/Cedric story. As in, that "curly haired kid, Justin Finch- Fletchley" having some kind of innocent boy-crush on the all around good- guy and crush-worthy Cedric Diggory, and Cedric being his usual sweet, kind self about the entire matter, not wanting to hurt Justin's feelings, and thus...this thing evolved. Or mutated. Whichever.

**Pairing**: Cedric/Justin

**Setting**: PoA time-span, perhaps GoF later

---------------------

Loyalty  
  
_Chapter One: A Secret Between Friends_  
  
"Really, Cedric, you can't go blaming yourself--we won the match fair and square," Zacharias Smith said as the Hufflepuff Quidditch team entered their common room to a roar of applause and cheering. "Potter fell off his broom; you didn't. You caught the snitch, and we won. It's as simple as that."  
  
Ernie Macmillan chimed in with a hardy, "Hear hear!" and Hannah Abbot nodded vigorously from their arm chairs by the fireplace. Justin Finch- Fletchley nodded his agreement too, but a little less noticeably.  
  
Cedric still looked slightly remorseful, but accepted the bottle of butterbeer pushed into his hands by an eager second-year and smiled thankfully at her. She blushed and ran back over to join her giggling friends as he took a small swig.  
  
After a while, the common room began to empty out as people started to head off for bed, but Justin decided to stay down a little while longer. He told Ernie to go to bed without him and that he still had some Transfiguration homework he needed to work on before he went to sleep. He felt the quiet would be good enough for him to concentrate in, and he took out his quill and parchment and began to write when he noticed faintly the sounds of slow breathing, as if someone was asleep.  
  
Justin peered around the back of his armchair and found Cedric asleep in the fluffy chintz he sat down in when he first entered the room, his empty butterbeer bottle resting against his chest. Justin noticed, dully, that Cedric was still in his Quidditch robes as well, still slightly muddy and wet.  
  
"I'd better just wake him up so he can at least change and go to sleep properly," Justin muttered to himself, and set his materials to the side and pushed himself up from the armchair and walked towards Cedric. He poked him lightly in the shoulder a few times before Cedric awoke with a slight jump.  
  
"Oh...hi, Justin," he said sleepily, stifling a yawn. He looked around the common room with calm, though heavy-lidded gray eyes, and then turned back to face Justin. "What time is it?"  
  
"Nearly after two." Justin answered. "I figured you'd want to change out of those wet clothes, and all," Justin instantly regretted the choice of words as soon as he said them, but Cedric didn't seem to notice. Then again, Cedric had probably never seen campy Muggle movies with cringe-worthy pick up lines, so Justin felt a little better for it.  
  
"Yeah, you're right...thanks," Cedric said, and stood, sweeping his dark hair from his face, and stood up. Somewhere in the back of Justin's mind, he marveled at how tall Cedric was, especially when standing next his 13-year- old, due-for-a-growth-spurt-any-day-now self.  
  
Cedric had begun to make his way towards the dormitories when Justin suddenly spoke up, "I heard about you wanting a rematch because of what happened to Harry; I thought that was really good of you." Cedric stopped walking and turned back to face Justin. "I, uh, I thought it was really fair, I mean. Very becoming of a Hufflepuff, and all that. I don't think Zacharias would've called for a rematch if it were him."  
  
Cedric allowed himself a small smile. "I dunno...he might've. And thanks."  
  
"That catch you made was brilliant, though," Justin continued, feeling a strong urge to keep the fifth year talking to him; he very much liked his company. "The way you dived and everything--I could never do that on a broom."  
  
The older boy's cheeks flushed slightly. "You know, I'm not quite so tired anymore; how 'bout a game of wizard's chess?"  
  
Justin beamed at the idea.

-------------------

The next morning at breakfast, as Justin sat next to Hannah and Ernie, he had the strong desire to tell his friends about his late night chess- capades and conversation with Cedric Diggory, but a nagging voice in the back of his subconscious decided against it. He didn't _have_ to share everything with the two of them, did he? That little impromptu meeting was just between him and Cedric, anyway.  
  
Why did he care, though? It wasn't really that big of a deal; they had play a couple games of chess, discussed some more about Quidditch in general, and speculated a bit about the whereabouts of Sirius Black now. They even talked a little bit about Justin's Muggle parentage, and Justin even got a small laugh out of the look of confusion on Cedric's face when the younger boy tried to explain his rides on the Underground to him.  
  
Still, all in all, it wasn't really that significant of a meeting, but Justin wanted to keep it to himself all the same. Something about he and the ever-popular and handsome Cedric Diggory sharing a secret midnight conversation no one else knew about made him feel special. Made him feel something, anyway, he thought as looked down the table at the boy in question, who was busy chatting with another fifth year.  
  
"Justin!" The curly-haired boy snapped out his daze and looked at the slightly irritated face of his friend. "I've been calling your name for the past five minutes; where's your head?"  
  
"Sorry, I was distracted." Justin apologized in a low tone. "What is it?"  
  
"Oh, forget it now," Ernie grumped, and reached for the sausages himself and began piling them onto his plate.  
  
"Ooh, I know that look," Hannah piped up excitedly, and set her book down that she had been studying. "You were thinking about someone, weren't you?"  
  
"No," Justin lied, and began digging at his plate, hoping his face wouldn't betray him. It did, of course.  
  
"You were! Look at you, you're blushing!" she lowered her voice conspiratorially and asked, "Who is it? I promise I won't tell, come on, Justin..."  
  
"Now, Hannah, leave the poor kid alone," Ernie said, slightly bewildered at her enthusiasm. "He might not have been thinking about anyone..." Ernie pushed his plate away from him and stood up. "I'm going off to the library for a bit before class, care to join me?"  
  
"I'll come, I have to return this anyway," Hannah said, holding up the book; she still cast a look every once and a while at Justin to see if he would crack and tell her who had been on his mind. We he didn't, she sighed, and left the Great Hall with Ernie.  
  
He finished his breakfast quickly and left the table, noticing Cedric was no longer there, and then proceed down towards the kitchens to the Hufflepuff common room in order to get his schoolbags. He only gotten halfway there when he got another pleasant surprise.  
  
"Cedric, hi!" Justin said, stopping just inches before bumping headfirst into the tall boy. Cedric smiled his slow, warm smile at Justin, causing the younger boy to experience funny little flutterings in his stomach and chest he would've rather ignored. "I was just going to get my bags, and uh..." he trailed off, at lost for anything else interesting to say.  
  
Cedric, luckily, filled in the blanks. "I was thinking maybe tonight we could meet again; you could teach me that move you made with your knight that seemed to have stumped me twice in a row."  
  
"Sure! Um, I mean, sure..." Justin said, trying not to sound as eager as he felt. "Same time, then? Around two?"  
  
"Yeah, that'll work." he replied. "You can tell me more about the Muggle world too; it sounds interesting. Especially that 'tube' thing you kept talking about," he said, making his charmingly confused face again. "Anyway, it'll just be between the two of us; a secret between friends."  
  
Justin grinned almost half-wittedly. "Yeah, sounds great."  
  
"Great. See you then."

--------------------------

**Author's Note: **Just updated to fix some grammar errors. Thanks for the reviews; keep them coming!


	2. An Unfamiliar Want

**Title**: Loyalty

**Author**: Ashanta

**Rating**: PG

**Summary**: For some strange, unexplainable reason, I had the desire to write a Justin/Cedric story. As in, that "curly haired kid, Justin Finch- Fletchley" having some kind of innocent boy-crush on the all around good- guy and crush-worthy Cedric Diggory, and Cedric being his usual sweet, kind self about the entire matter, not wanting to hurt Justin's feelings, and thus...this thing evolved. Or mutated. Whichever.

**Pairing**: Cedric/Justin

**Setting**: PoA time-span, perhaps GoF later

---------------------

  
_Chapter Two: An Unfamiliar Want_

As he left the common room with his school bags in hand, trudging off to Herbology, Justin made it a point to avoid looking Hannah in the face for the rest of the day. He supposed she'd figure it out eventually--Hannah was unusually good at reading people--but he still resolved to keep quiet about it anyway. Cedric seemed just as keen on keeping their meeting between the two of them secret as Justin had. Again, he didn't know why, but knowing that made him feel good. Perhaps it was due to the fact that while many others looked up to Cedric, it was Justin that Cedric felt like talking to, one on one, in the middle of the night.  
  
Alone.  
  
He really should stop over-analyzing this, he thought to himself, and entered the greenhouse, following behind Susan Bones. 

  
  
-----------------------------------

Behind the hangings of his bed, Justin looked at his watch by the light of his wand; it nearly a quarter to two. He decided to head down now, and carefully climbed out off his bed and then shut the hangings closed behind him, cautious not to wake Ernie, who had always been a light sleeper.  
  
He and Cedric had kept to these meetings regularly for a few weeks now, and neither party was exactly sure why, other than the two enjoyed each others company more than either realized. He wondered briefly how odd this whole situation was if he cared to think about it long enough; sneaking around in the dark after hours to talk to an older boy. It would border on scandalous if it weren't just an innocent meeting. And if he thought about Cedric that way.  
  
...Which he didn't.  
  
Justin pushed open the door to the common room and found Cedric already sitting by the fireplace, setting up his chess pieces.  
  
"...And maybe next time you wouldn't mind going where I direct you to? We might have won if you had," Cedric was saying to his particularly stubborn bishop.  
  
"Not when you're considering sacrificing _me_ over a pawn," the bishop replied indignantly. "The nerve of it all...your father would've never made such a move--"  
  
"Justin, there you are!" Cedric said, and finally stopped arguing with his chess piece and stood up to acknowledge the younger boy. "Come on, I just finished setting up the board."  
  
They played for a while, Cedric looking as though he had finally cornered Justin's king into a fatal position, when Justin's mind began to wander into dangerous territory. Maybe, Justin thought, as stole a glance at Cedric's concentrated, handsome face, maybe he _did_ think of Cedric in that way, or at least was beginning to. _Well, who could really blame him?_ He pointed out to himself in a somewhat defensive manner. It was Cedric Diggory, after all, and what was there not to like? Girls liked him easily enough, why couldn't he?  
  
"Oh, this is ridiculous," Justin muttered under his breath.  
  
"Checkmate." Cedric announced triumphantly, and Justin looked down at the board in surprise. Cedric's knight had smashed into Justin's king, and was making a spectacle of himself by prancing around the board in what appeared to be a victory lap. Cedric peered at the other boy and said, "Is something wrong? You look a little distracted."  
  
Justin made a mental note to start hiding his emotions better. "I was just thinking, s'all."  
  
"'Bout a girl?" Cedric asked casually as he reset the board, though there was a ghost of grin on his lips.  
  
"Er...well...not exactly," Justin said truthfully, and looked down, thinking if he couldn't keep his face blank, he'd at least not give Cedric the opportunity to see his growing blush. "Can you, er, keep a secret?"  
  
Cedric looked a little surprised, but then straightened up and crossed his heart with a slender finger. "I swear by my Hufflepuff loyalty," he replied, grinning slightly at the corniness of the declaration.  
  
Justin too allowed himself a grin, but it faded a little when he considered what he was getting ready to admit to. "...I wasn't thinking about a girl." He began. "I was, er, I was actually thinking about a guy..." Cedric blinked, and his smile faded a bit as well. Justin instantly felt very, very stupid, and very, very exposed. "Sorry...I probably shouldn't have told you that," he mumbled lowly.  
  
"No, no, that's okay," He said, waving a dismissive hand that knocked into his queen and sent her smashing to the floor. He quickly repaired her with a spell and placed her back on the board, looking uncharacteristically sheepish; Cedric wasn't much of the clumsy type. The Quidditch captain noticed the look on Justin's face and continued, "Would it be too much to ask you who it is? Who you're thinking of, I mean?"  
  
"I'd, uh, really rather not say," Justin decided one confession was enough for tonight, considering Cedric's initial reaction. Stupid, really, for him to think it would go any better. Cedric could've called him a poof and stormed back up to his dormitory and refused to talk to him. Then again, that would have seemed very out of character for Cedric, but then again, Justin thought, maybe he really was a poof...  
  
Cedric shifted uncomfortably for a moment in his armchair and then finally said, "Well, if you want to talk any more...tomorrow night, after the match...?"  
  
Justin nodded, and got up from his armchair. The two said awkward "goodnight"s to one another and then made their way back up to their separate dormitories in silence, each with one more secret to keep between them.

--------------------

**Author's** **Note:** Sorry if it's a bit short; I'm currently working on chapter three now because I decided to divide the chapter in two; I felt it would make more sense that way. Also, thanks for the reviews! Much appreciated. 


	3. Loyalty

**Title**: Loyalty

**Author**: Ashanta

**Rating**: PG

**Summary**: For some strange, unexplainable reason, I had the desire to write a Justin/Cedric story. As in, that "curly haired kid, Justin Finch- Fletchley" having some kind of innocent boy-crush on the all around good- guy and crush-worthy Cedric Diggory, and Cedric being his usual sweet, kind self about the entire matter, not wanting to hurt Justin's feelings, and thus...this thing evolved. Or mutated. Whichever.

**Pairing**: Cedric/Justin

**Setting**: PoA time-span, perhaps GoF later

---------------------

  
_Chapter Three: Loyalty_

_   
  
_The Hufflepuff common room couldn't have been any more different from the night of their win against Gryffindor. When the Quidditch team entered the room this time, a somber air met them, not even encouraging chirps of "Good game" or "You did your best" meeting their ears. Ravenclaw had flattened them, and they were now out of the running for the Quidditch Cup. Cedric was so tired that he dragged himself to bed without a word to his fellow housemates.  
  
The next morning when he awoke, he rolled out of bed with a dull ache in his head, as if his subconscious was trying to beat something from his memory at the back of his head. After a moment, he realized with a sense of dread he had missed his late night meeting with Justin and hadn't even forewarned the other boy that he wasn't coming down. The thought of Justin, sitting all alone in that common room waiting for Cedric to show for hours...  
  
Cedric could've kicked himself; Justin probably thought he ditched him because of what happened the other night. Cedric hoped that wasn't the case; he thought Justin rather brave for deciding to tell him, and felt even a little bit of pride, sure he was the first person Justin had told.  
  
Quickly making his decision, Cedric pulled on his robes and hurried out of his room.

--------------------------  
  
There was a light knock on the door of the dormitory, and Ernie Macmillan opened a sleepy eye and peered out from between his hangings to see if anyone went to answer it. When he saw Justin's form cross the room and open the door slowly, he nestled back under his duvet, ready to fall asleep when he heard voices.  
  
"Justin, I just come to apologize," a voice said from the door in a whisper, and Ernie tried to ignore the conversation, but the voice a clear in the quiet room where everyone else was still sleeping. "I should've told you I wasn't going to meet you last night, but I was so upset over the game...I know that's no excuse, though."  
  
Justin mumbled something under his breath that Ernie couldn't quite hear, but the other boy replied, "I didn't purposely skive off meeting you, you know that, don't you?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah I guess so," Ernie heard Justin reply, sounding slightly sullen. Ernie peeked again from behind his hangings and saw, to his shock, Justin talking to Cedric Diggory, who was standing in the doorway with an apologetic look on his face. What Justin had done to make a 5th year apologetic, he didn't know, but was curious to find out.  
  
"I guess I'd should get going then," Cedric said to Justin, and paused for a moment, looking hesitant. The next moment, so unexpectedly it seemed to catch both parties off guard, Cedric bent down and kissed Justin quickly on the forehead in a gesture that appeared to be more friendly than romantic, but Justin looked surprised nonetheless.  
  
Ernie couldn't help it. He gasped loudly, blowing his cover, and Justin and Cedric both widened their eyes in shock when they realized they were being watched. Justin quickly pushed the taller boy bodily out the door and closed it behind with a _snap_. Justin leaned with his back against the door, face bright pink, and peered around the room.  
  
"Ernie? Ernie, was that you?" he whispered, looking over at the other boy's hangings. Ernie quickly scrambled back under the duvet, but it was too late. Justin strode across the length of the room and pulled Ernie's hangings open slightly. "Please don't tell anyone..." he whispered, looking panicked and flustered.  
  
"I won't." he said honestly, still reeling from shock. He made a note in the back of his head that he owed Hannah five Sickles. "Promise."  
  
"Why did he do that?" Justin asked desperately, as if Ernie had the answer. "I mean, what in Merlin's name possessed him to..." He trailed off, looking horror-stricken. "He knows, doesn't he?"  
  
"Knows what?" Ernie asked, becoming more and more confused with each word Justin spoke, but making sure to keep his voice down so the other boys who were--presumably--still asleep, couldn't hear them. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"Really, Ernie, do I need to spell it out for you? You saw what happened," Justin snapped, a little harsher than he meant to. "Merlin, now I'll probably have to tell Hannah..."  
  
"You don't have to, you know. You can trust me not to tell her. She's got a right big mouth, anyway," Ernie added quietly, as if he were afraid Hannah was lurking around somewhere nearby and could hear him. "Probably end up telling half the school if you give her the chance." He looked over to Justin and said, "Come on, let's go down to the common room so we can talk about this properly."  
  
They pulled on their robes and went down to the common room, where only the sprinklings of a few people were awake; it was a Saturday morning, after all.  
  
"So, mate...really, you and _Cedric Diggory_? The _Quidditch captain_?" Ernie asked at once, and realized he sounded a bit like a gossipy schoolgirl. He had to stop hanging around Hannah Abbot so much.  
  
"What? No, of course not." Justin said. "It's...it's not anything like that. You make it sound so...scandalous, or something. I mean, he's a _fifth_ year, Ernie; he'll be sixteen soon."  
  
"Why'd he kiss you, then?" Ernie pressed, lowering his voice in case of any eavesdroppers.  
  
"I dunno...if you ask me, I reckon _he_ doesn't even know. And anyway," Justin added, feeling a lot less frantic now, "It was only on the forehead, right?" He stopped suddenly, turning slowly towards Ernie. "You seem to be taking this awfully well," he observed.  
  
"I have a cousin in Yorkshire who's dating a bloke; nothing much new for me here, mate." Ernie replied simply, shrugging. "Even if I didn't, you're my best mate; I don't care if you're a poof or not."  
  
Justin made a face, but appreciated the sentiment all the same. "Thanks."  
  
"Come on, how about a game of Exploding Snap?" Justin nodded in a agreement, and he and Ernie went back to the dormitory to collect the game.


	4. Truth

**Title**: Loyalty

**Author**: Ashanta

**Rating**: PG

**Summary**: For some strange, unexplainable reason, I had the desire to write a Justin/Cedric story. As in, that "curly haired kid, Justin Finch- Fletchley" having some kind of innocent boy-crush on the all around good- guy and crush-worthy Cedric Diggory, and Cedric being his usual sweet, kind self about the entire matter, not wanting to hurt Justin's feelings, and thus...this thing evolved. Or mutated. Whichever.

**Pairing**: Cedric/Justin

**Setting**: PoA time-span, perhaps GoF later

----------

_Chapter Four: Truth_

__   
  
Cedric was certain he had only made situations, in fact, worse than before. He wasn't exactly sure what had been going on in his head when he kissed Justin on the forehead, but he knew what was going on his head now. Mostly, it had to do with Justin being thirteen, male, and extremely naïve and innocent. None of these, Cedric noted, mixed very well. He also had the feeling that these ingredients would become volatile if added to his own mix of nearly-sixteen, male, and easily persuaded.  
  
It was just that Justin's face look so dejected, Cedric did the first thing that came to mind that he hoped would make him feel better. In retrospect, putting a hand on the younger boy's shoulder would've just as easily sufficed, and led to a lot less confusion.  
  
It seemed as though he and Justin had been simultaneously avoiding one another for the entire weekend, their late night meetings forgotten in the confusion of the past couple of days. But no one seemed to be whispering or conspiring behind Cedric's back, so he figured Justin's friend who had spotted them earlier had kept his promise not to tell anyone.  
  
Well, really, Cedric thought as he munched on toast that Monday morning before class, there was nothing _to_ tell. Sure, he had kissed Justin, but really, it was only on the forehead. His own mother kissed him on the forehead months ago at King's Cross before he'd boarded the Hogwarts Express. Then again, his mother probably didn't get a slight lurch of excitement in her stomach when she did, either.  
  
At least, Cedric hoped she didn't.  
  
In truth, Cedric was avoiding Justin in hopes of lessening the chances of stirring up anymore feelings when he saw the curly-haired, normally talkative third year.  
  
Unfortunately, fate was not on Cedric's side. As soon as he got up from the Hufflepuff table and entered the Great Hall, Justin was there as well, waving hello to another Hufflepuff third year, a girl with a long plait who'd just passed him by.  
  
Cedric didn't even have the chance to consider hiding; Justin turned around and instantly spotted the tall fifth year. He reddened a little, but smiled genially at Cedric and said hello.  
  
"Hi, Justin," he replied, his throat feeling unusually tight. "Er...look, about Saturday..."  
  
"It's fine," Justin said quickly, before Cedric could elaborate. "Hey, my Herbology class was cancelled this afternoon; do you want to hang out?"  
  
Cedric actually had Defense Against the Dark Arts at that time, and wasn't too keen on missing any of Professor Lupin's classes, but he remembered then that he'd heard from Zacharias Smith that Lupin was sick today, and Snape would be substituting. Perhaps he could chance it...  
  
"Yeah, all right, sure. I'll meet you in the common room, then?"  
  
The common room, Cedric realized a little too late, was filled with the other third years who also had Herbology cancelled. Still, with Cedric skiving off class, he couldn't exactly wander around the corridors, so they decided to go into Justin's dormitory, taking the wizard's chess with them.  
  
Everything seemed to fall into place after that, a rapid series of actions taking place. They had been sitting on the floor near Justin's bed, speculating about what gruesome punishment Cedric would have to face once Snape found out he had purposely missed class, and laughing when they realized Professor Lupin could and would overrule the punishment since it was _his_ class, after all, when Cedric found himself suddenly very close to Justin. As in so close, that he could count the individual freckles on Justin's face. Justin leaned in closer to Cedric, closing his eyes, and the older boy, almost unthinkingly, closed his as well and moved forward...  
  
_SMACK!_  
  
Their foreheads cracked together and they parted, disoriented, and slightly smarting.  
  
"Sorry...sorry," Justin muttered, rubbing his head, and Cedric wasn't sure whether or not he was apologizing for trying to kiss him, or for bumping his head against the other boy's. "I guess it's not as easy as it looks..."  
  
Cedric smiled in spite of himself, and gently took Justin's chin into his hand and tilted his head up to face him; Justin's eyes went rather wide. "It helps if at least someone can see where they're going..." Cedric said softly, and demonstrated by gingerly leaning forward and pressing is lips lightly against Justin's. "See?"  
  
Justin stared. "No...my eyes were closed." Justin said in awe, putting his fingers to his lips in amazement. He leaned forward in hopes to return the kiss, but was stopped by his and Cedric's noses bumping into each other, pushing against one another in a rather uncomfortable manner. He backed away, a little red with embarrassment, and said, "Really, you make it look so easy."  
  
"Come at me again, and tilt you head a little to the side when you feel our noses touch," Cedric advised, grinning slightly that he was coaching Justin on how to kiss him when he could've been in Snape's class right now. Justin did, and was met with the reward of Cedric's lips greeting his own.  
  
For Cedric, it was a rather chaste kiss, but for Justin, who didn't even know about how to go about initiating one, it was enough for the butterflies in his stomach to violently tie themselves in knots and then shoot up to his heart, hammering against it loudly.  
  
They separated, and Justin was blushing so brightly his face even felt hot. "I-I'd, er, I'd better get ready to start heading back upstairs for class..." Justin said, and began to stand up, fumbling against his bed, which he used to push himself up into a standing position. "Um, thanks, for the, er..." Justin was once again at a lost for coherent words as he looked up at Cedric's smiling gray eyes. "Well, anyway, thanks...I'll see you later, then?" He smiled weakly, and Cedric gave him one last, parting kiss, lingering a little longer than the first two. Justin nearly toppled sideways out of the door.  
  
Cedric waited a little while until he could no longer hear Justin's footsteps, and then followed, closing the door to Justin's dormitory behind him. 


	5. Misconceptions

**Title**: Loyalty

**Author**: Ashanta

**Rating**: PG

**Summary**: For some strange, unexplainable reason, I had the desire to write a Justin/Cedric story. As in, that "curly haired kid, Justin Finch- Fletchley" having some kind of innocent boy-crush on the all around good- guy and crush-worthy Cedric Diggory, and Cedric being his usual sweet, kind self about the entire matter, not wanting to hurt Justin's feelings, and thus...this thing evolved. Or mutated. Whichever.

**Pairing**: Cedric/Justin

**Setting**: PoA time-span, perhaps GoF later

----------

_Chapter Five: Misconceptions_

Hannah Abbot was determined to figure out what in the world was going on with Justin Finch-Fletchley when he returned from his break between classes with the most dazed look on his face yet. Granted, it wasn't anything different from the looks she and Susan had when they passed Roger Davies or Cedric Diggory in the corridor, but Justin was a _guy_. Surely, they didn't get all giggly and flustered like she did.

After the last class of the day, she decided not to corner Justin himself, but go straight to Ernie. He was Justin's best friend; surely Justin would tell _him _what was going on with him, wouldn't he?

She found Ernie just outside the library talking to Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas of Gryffindor. She greeted them all brightly, and then asked them if she could pull Ernie aside to talk to him for a moment. Dean and Seamus nodded and continued their conversation with each other as they walked down the opposite end of the corridor, away from the library.

"All right, Ernie, you are going to tell me right now; what's up with Justin?" she asked without pretence once Dean and Seamus were out of hearing range.

"What?" Ernie asked, caught of guard.

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed he's been acting really funny lately," she said, waggling an accusatory finger at him. "He's gone three whole days without chatting us up for more than five minutes once. It's not right; I think something's up."

"Hannah, now really..."

"And I reckon you know something about it and that's why you've been keeping so quiet around me too. In fact," she said suspiciously, "the _both _of you have been acting a right bit weird lately..." And then, it hit Hannah right in the face as if she had just lost a massive game of Exploding Snap. She gasped and then put her hands to her mouth.

"Yes, and you'll do well not to tell anyone," Ernie said sternly, slightly annoyed that Hannah had figured it out, but at least secure in the fact that he still didn't betray Justin by outright telling her about him and Cedric. "Justin's already going through enough on his end keeping it a secret, he doesn't need you blabbing it to everyone."

"Oh, no, no, I won't!" Hannah said sincerely. "I promise. You can trust me--"

"Not even Susan, Hannah," warned Ernie.

"No, no, not even Susan." Hannah replied earnestly. Oh, why hadn't she seen it earlier? Justin and Ernie were always around each other and there were times with Hannah didn't necessarily feel like she was really as close to Justin or Ernie as they were to one another. She had always assumed it was just because she was _the girl_ of the group, but there may have been more truth to that statement than what she had previously thought of before. "Well...how long?" she whispered.

"Well, now, Hannah, is that really any of your business? Just be glad you squeezed that much out of me," Ernie said defensively, and Hannah immediately felt sorry; she shouldn't have pried _that_ much. They were probably just starting out after all and Ernie didn't want to jinx anything. "And don't mention it to Justin that you know, either. Poor bloke might very well die of embarrassment."

"No, of course not," Hannah said in a hushed whisper, her blonde pigtails nearly trembling in the excitement of it all. "Not a word."

"Good."

She sighed lightly as she and Ernie walked towards the Great Hall which was being set up for dinner. "Really, though, I still think it's rather cute," Hannah said wistfully.

"Oh, Hannah, now, _really_," Ernie said exasperatedly as they headed down towards the kitchens and to the Hufflepuff common room. "Honestly, some people..." She giggled in response and followed him down the stairs.

------------------

Zacharias Smith rolled out of his four poster bed and headed out towards the bathroom, dully noting he would never again in his life drink that much water before going to sleep. After he washed and hands and dried them, he headed back towards his bed when he realized he'd left his good set of quills in the common room. With his luck, they would probably already be gone; they were rather expensive quills and he'd seen Wayne Hopkins eyeing them earlier when Zacharias had been working on his Ancient Runes essay.

It had to be a little bit after one when he went down into the common room to search for his quills, and heard hushed talking. What anyone would be doing up this late on a Monday night--now Tuesday morning--was beyond him, but he figured it was none of his business and simply proceeded forward to search for his things. He was making his way around the back of the cellar-like common room when he suddenly heard Diggory's voice.

"Ever since after the game with Ravenclaw, I've been feeling a bit differently..."

Zacharias straightened up. Could Cedric possibly be talking about the new Ravenclaw seeker, Cho Chang? Well, she was pretty, Zacharias admitted to himself. And presumably was bright, considering she was in Ravenclaw--not that there weren't bright Hufflepuffs as well.

"I mean," Cedric went on, "of course there's the slight age difference..." Chang _was_ a year younger than Cedric...surely that wasn't really much, though, was it?

"Well, you could always work around that, couldn't you?" another voice asked, a younger boy. Zacharias wondered faintly why Diggory was telling all this to some second or third year, by the sounds of it, instead of addressing him.

"I guess I could," Zacharias heard Diggory reply with a smile in his voice. He then spotted his quills on the side table and quickly picked them up, leaving brusquely back to his dormitory without a backwards glance. He was rather sure he had walked in on something he wasn't supposed to hear anyway, and it would be best if he just put it to the back of his head.

Still, Zacharias thought as he pushed open the hangings to his four-poster bed, he couldn't help but feel slightly perturbed at the fact that Diggory wasn't sharing any of this information with him. He'd always thought this was because Diggory was more of the quiet type, but clearly he had no problem talking to this mysterious third year.

Finally, Zacharias pushed the idea out of his head, figuring Diggory's business was just that--his own--and closed his eyes and soon after fell sleep.


	6. Firsts

**Title**: Loyalty

**Author**: Ashanta

**Rating**: PG

**Summary**: For some strange, unexplainable reason, I had the desire to write a Justin/Cedric story. As in, that "curly haired kid, Justin Finch- Fletchley" having some kind of innocent boy-crush on the all around good- guy and crush-worthy Cedric Diggory, and Cedric being his usual sweet, kind self about the entire matter, not wanting to hurt Justin's feelings, and thus...this thing evolved. Or mutated. Whichever.

**Pairing**: Cedric/Justin

**Setting**: PoA time-span, perhaps GoF later

_**Warning**: Writing late at night produced more fluff than usual..._

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_Chapter Six: Firsts_

Saturday morning, the beginning of Hogsmeade weekend, soon was upon the Hogwarts students, bright and breezy with only the slightest wisps of clouds in the sky.

Justin sat on the edge of his bed and slowly pulled his socks on, thinking. He had agreed to go to Hogsmeade this weekend with Cedric without knowing what it would really entail. He assumed lots of walking around shops and the like, but perhaps they would stop and have a drink at the Three Broomsticks? Then again, if they did, they would have to figure out something to talk about. Normally he had no problem at all coming up with what he thought were interesting conversation topics ("He's like the thing that wouldn't shut up(1)," Ernie had once remarked of Justin), but this was different: He was thirteen-years-old--he'd never been on a date before.

Justin stopped in the middle of tying his shoes and stared at the floor. A date. Merlin, he was getting ready to go on a date with Cedric Diggory, prefect, Quidditch Captain, and the object of many a girls' desires here at Hogwarts...What the hell was he thinking wearing that ugly beige jumper?

He was in the midst of pulling said jumper over his head when their came a knock at the door. "It's--oof--open!" Justin muttered from beneath a forest of knitted wool.

"I was just seeing if you were ready to--oh."

Justin stopped struggling suddenly and looked through the gaps in his sweater to find a bemused Cedric looking at him from the doorway. Justin quickly pulled the sweater back down.

"Er...sorry," Justin said sheepishly. "I'm ready." Cedric smiled his slow, warm smile and escorted Justin out of his dormitory.

"What were you doing?" Cedric asked as they left the Great Hall and followed the retreating line of students leaving the castle.

"Just trying to change into another jumper...I didn't really like this one as much as I thought I did." Justin explained, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Really? I always thought that one looked rather nice on you," Cedric replied just as nonchalantly. Justin suddenly thought himself crazy for trying to rid himself of his wonderful, lovely beige jumper earlier.

Once they arrived at Hogsmeade, Justin found his previous worry about running out of things to talk about was clearly unfounded rubbish as he and Cedric easily moved from one topic to the other, much like they had during their late-night sessions in the Hufflepuff common room. On more than one occasion, while sitting together at the Three Broomsticks with mugs of butterbeer in their hands, Justin forgot their were other people in the pub as well, especially when he and Cedric became particularly engaged in conversation about rumors of the Quidditch World Cup being held in England this summer.

Still deep in conversation, Cedric suddenly reached across the table for Justin's hand and Justin, not use to such actions, automatically flinched and pulled his hand back before realizing what Cedric was doing.

"Oh, er, sorry," Justin said, face reddening, and placed his hand back on the table once he realized Cedric wasn't going to attempt to stab ir with his butter knife any time soon. But within that split second Justin had pulled away, Cedric had suddenly remembered where he was, which was not alone with the third year in the comforts of their common room or dormitory, but in a busy, noisy, crowded pub. He sat his hands back in his lap and looked into his empty mug. "Do, er, do you want you get out of here?" Justin offered.

Cedric looked up. "Sure. I'm finished--you?" Justin nodded in response and they paid Madam Rosmerta and then left down the winding, cobbled road. They didn't walk far, however, before Justin slowed down to a halt, and his eyes began to almost cloud over, lost in thought.

"Justin?"

"Does it feel cold to you...?" He asked in an eerie, distant voice, and looked around for a moment. His expression soon changed to that of fear, and he shrank away from an invisible presence, his eyes squeezed shut and small frame beginning to shake.

"Justin, what's the matter?" Cedric asked more sternly, grabbing his shoulders to prevent him from shaking any more. The older boy looked up and saw the Dementors that were still prowling around the Hogsmeade area and immediately realized the source of Justin's anxiety. "Come on...let's get out of here, Justin. I think I have some chocolate Professor Lupin gave me around here somewhere..."

---------

They reached the Hufflepuff common room about twenty minutes later and found it thankfully sparse as Cedric sat Justin down in one of the large, cushy armchair by the crackling fireplace.

"I'm fine, really," Justin insisted as Cedric handed him another piece of chocolate. "I just don't like them much, is all..."

"No one does, Justin," Cedric said quietly, and kneeled in front of him. After a moment, Cedric continued quietly, "...It was the day you got Petrified, wasn't it?"

Justin looked at Cedric for a moment, unsure of what to say. He knew his Petrifaction from last year was something everyone knew about--how couldn't they?--but somehow it never registered to him the Cedric was one of those people.

"Yes," he finally said, looking down. "But...I don't remember anything from it other than looking through Nearly Headless Nick and then seeing a pair of great, big yellow eyes and then--" Justin shuddered, as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped all down his back. "--I thought I had _died_." he whispered looking fearful as if the basilisk was lurking around the corner, waiting for him. "I still dream about those eyes, sometimes..." Justin whispered even lower, his voice almost inaudible. "And now with Black on the loose and those Dementors around everywhere I just keep on reliving it and..." He shuddered again. "...I don't want to talk any more about it, Cedric."

"I'm sorry...I didn't mean to bring it up like that," Cedric apologized. He stood up and then leaned down over Justin, kissing him on the cheek in hopes of consoling him. When he started to pull away, he was surprised when he found Justin's small arms suddenly wrapped around shoulders, pulling him back.

"Don't leave yet...there's no one here."

"It's okay, Justin. I'll stay here with you--"

"No, I mean there's _no one here_." Justin said, looking significantly at the older boy, and pulled him closer, almost much like how a small child would hold their teddy bear close to them for security. "Stay with me..."

...So he did.

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**Author's Note:** (1)Ten imaginary bonus points to whoever can name where that quote can from.

Reviews, as usual, appreciated! Thanks for reading if you've gotten this far. ;-)


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